


It's A Blue World, Baby

by cubile



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Annabeth Chase & Leo Valdez Friendship, Annabeth Chase & Piper McLean Friendship, Annabeth Chase & Thalia Grace Friendship, F/M, Gen, M/M, Minor Character Death, POV Annabeth Chase
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:28:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24245797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cubile/pseuds/cubile
Summary: Annabeth has seen more relationships between soulmates go wrong than right, and she doesn't see why hers will be any different. So what if she listens to the sound of the waves crashing on her rib-cage to fall asleep at night? It would be harder not to listen to them.She's utterly unprepared for Leo to find his soulmate, and for them to be pretty much the cutest thing she's ever seen. Is there something to this soulmate business after all? No, she tells herself firmly. No, there is not.But then Percy Jackson from summer camp shows up, and everything gets even more complicated from there.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Luke Castellan/Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 76





	1. What It Always Is

**Author's Note:**

> we'll see :)

Annabeth did a fair amount of cursing when it came to her soulmark. Also her soulmate, whoever that may be, society, and the universe at large for having the sheer audacity to assign them their “perfect partners” at the age of 18. Today she woke up and threw in a few extra curses for her parents, who weren’t soulmates but had her anyway, and for her soulmate’s parents, just because she felt the burning need to assign blame to whoever she could in this scenario.

She sat up in bed, mouth stale and expression vacant, and took a few seconds to stare blankly at the wall opposite her. She could’ve stayed there for any number of minutes, and probably would’ve, had her roommate, Piper, not slammed the door open and instantly captured Annabeth’s attention.

Her beautiful-as-always-even-when-she’s-just-woken-up roommate stared back at her, the silence stretching for seconds as Piper took in the state Annabeth hadn’t pulled herself out of yet. Annabeth was just getting ready to snap at her,  _ what, you come barging in here and then don’t even have anything to say? _ when Piper asked, falsely chipper, “Breakfast?”

Mutely, she followed the girl through the tiny halls of their Manhattan apartment, all the way to their cramped kitchen, where Piper immediately started cracking eggs and pouring batter. She couldn’t cook any meal besides breakfast, but in typical Piper fashion declared it a non-issue, stating that if she had to eat breakfast for every meal, it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. She had taken that to heart in the year since they had moved out of their dorm room, making Annabeth try her crepes on Saturdays and force feeding her waffles on late nights.

Annabeth, not even capable of making breakfast, slumped on a tattered barstool at the counter and watched her blearily, perking up only slightly when Piper rolled her eyes and shoved a cup of black coffee at her. She inhaled it’s fragrant aroma and sighed in satisfaction. She could tell Piper was holding back another eyeroll; the other girl didn’t drink coffee, and smugly said it was because she didn’t need it. Annabeth knew the real reason was because she didn’t want to develop an addiction to caffeine, harmless as it may seem. Piper’s dad had struggled with addiction to much harder substances after his soulmate, Piper’s mom, left him, and had only gotten clean when Piper acted out badly enough to almost get sent to jail for stealing a luxury BMW.

She held these thoughts in her head as she took her first sip of coffee, and continued observing Piper, in her element. She was wearing Hello Kitty pajama pants that had seen better days and wearing a white ribbed tank top that was in the same condition. Her hair was, as always, cut jagged and lopsided, which she did on purpose; Annabeth had been letting Piper cut her hair to save money and it never came out less than perfectly even. The flawless way she inhabited her body, beautiful in the early morning light, had intimidated Annabeth at first, in the early weeks of their friendship.

Annabeth had shown up to campus with two large suitcases, a backpack, and no one to see her off. She had hugged her half-brothers goodbye at the airport seven hours earlier, her dad and her step-mom too busy to take her themselves. It had hurt, like it always did, but she had brushed the sting aside in favor of gripping Bobby’s chin in one hand, grabbing Matthew by the back of the neck to pull him in closer. In the little space they carved out in the crowded airport, people jostling them on all sides, she said, quiet enough to get lost in the din of noise, “I love you guys.”

They chorused back  _ I love you too _ ’s, in sync as always and she smiled, pulling back and once again joining the general public of the airport, just another face in the crowd. She squeezed their hands, once, feeling their grasp tighten and then dropped them. And then she turned around, and didn’t look back.

She didn’t look back once, the entire way through the airport, focused on getting through security, and then getting to her gate, and then boarding the plane. It wasn’t until she was sat there, the attendants going through the safety protocol, that the overwhelming fact that she was leaving for college on the other coast of the United States began to hit. She dropped her head in her hands and pressed her palms to her eyes, hard enough to see stars explode and pinwheel in the darkness. She wouldn’t cry. She  _ would not  _ cry.

She kept that promise, all the way through the five hour flight, the trek through an unfamiliar airport, the cab ride to Columbia, and now, as she stood in the late day bustle of hundreds of kids claiming their own spots on campus, the urge returned. She didn’t let it take her, instead, she accepted the offer of help one of the volunteers extended in getting her things into her dorm room.

She was on the fourth floor, just high enough that she knew it would be acceptable to take the elevator, but low enough that she resigned herself to taking the stairs out of a general desire to not inconvenience her fellow freshmen. Today she didn’t feel as bad about it, cramming herself into the elevator next to the volunteer, who’s name she learned was Silena. Silena kept up a conversation all by herself, explaining generalities of moving and starting college, which Annabeth listened to solely so she could hum and nod at the right times.

They stepped off the elevator together, Annabeth trailing slightly behind as Silena navigated the hall with more confidence, weaving in and out of people and looking like the forty pound bag she was rolling behind her was no hassle. Annabeth struggled significantly more, but she caught up to the volunteer at the end of the hallway, the room furthest from the elevator as far as she could tell, but luckily for her, right next to the stairs.

She knocked perfunctorily, Annabeth having already explained that she didn’t know if her roommate had arrived before her. For a second, there was no response, but then the door flew open, spilling rock music into the hallway and exposing the most gorgeous girl Annabeth had ever laid eyes on. She considered herself mostly straight, but the girl in front of her instantly cast doubts on that characterization of herself.

“Annabeth?” the girl questioned, looking curiously between her and Silena.

“Piper?” she asked in return, sticking out a hand to shake, and willing it to not sweat when it came in contact with someone so hot.

The girl grinned, widely, showing her dimples for the first time. Annabeth liked her already.

Piper broke Annabeth from her memories by sliding a plate heaped with pancakes, eggs, and hashbrowns towards her, leaving it in the middle so they could share instead of getting another plate out. Piper hated cleaning, so she always strived to make the least amount of work for herself later. They had escalated to this sharing after moving into their apartment rather than Piper obnoxiously stealing food from Annabeth’s hands when she got back from the dining hall every morning. Piper followed the plate with a fork, slid straight to her, and turned to get maple syrup out of the fridge.

“So what is it today?” she asked with her face buried in the appliance, probably purposely.

“What it always is,” Annabeth replied lacklusterly, gesturing with her fork to her side as Piper straightens up victorious and throws her a look. To anyone else, that wouldn’t be enough, but Piper knows that’s where Annabeth’s soulmark is; she’s the only person in the world who has heard Annabeth’s rant about them from front to end. Thalia came close to understanding, but, as she played a very prominent role in Annabeth’s feelings about soulmates, she didn’t truly understand the loathing that she viewed her mark with. Thalia’s loathing was a whole other kind.

Thalia Grace was Annabeth’s best friend from the age of seven to thirteen, even though the girl was six years older than her. An outcast herself, she and her best friend, Luke, hadn’t minded a kid tagging along with them. Annabeth knew that Thalia related to the hesitancy she had in going home, which was surely part of why they tolerated her like they did. Luke had his own family issues, she knew, but he didn’t share them with her. She had wondered if he shared them with Thalia. She never did find out.

Luke’s birthday was almost a full year before Thalia’s. She didn’t see him until the afternoon, after school had already let out for all of them. Luke and Thalia were high schoolers; Luke poised to graduate in the top ten of his class and attend UCLA in the fall. Thalia was a year behind him, waiting on her decision from all the schools she applied to, but Annabeth knew she would follow Luke if Thalia had any say in it. The older girl was practically a force of nature wrapped up in deceitful packaging. Annabeth was still in middle school, her grey eyes clear of storm clouds and only a little weariness lurking around the edges. That would change.

They were leaned up against the brick wall opposite her usual entrance and exit from the school building, picked for it’s usual lack of bullies. Annabeth picked up on something right away, slowing as she approached the two, who were firmly staring in opposite directions. They picked up on her appearance at the same time, turning to smile at her only slightly pained looking. The look worsened when they realized how in sync they were, a grimace flashing across Luke’s face and Thalia’s mouth tightening.

She slowed to a stop in front of them, suddenly unsure if she was wanted there, a feeling that, while familiar, she had never associated with her two best friends. That feeling was put to ease when Luke stepped forward, an easy grin affixed to his face in place of the pained expression he had been wearing. Without preamble, he swung her up to his back and set off. Annabeth could hear Thalia huff behind them, but she hurried to catch up anyway, starting to regale Annabeth with the story of how she had gotten lunchtime detention. The air was still strained, but Annabeth did her best to focus in spite of it.

Luke didn’t say a word the whole walk to her house, forcing Annabeth and Thalia to keep up a conversation despite or maybe because of the awkwardness. They talked about the grade Annabeth had gotten on her vocab test, the essay Thalia was struggling with, the new construction on her block, anything but the tension that hung in the air between the three of them. She wanted nothing more than to ask, but the fact that she couldn’t see Luke’s face to gauge how he was feeling and the hurt still present in Thalia’s eyes dissuaded her.

They were on her street, only a couple dozen feet from her house when she tightened her arms incrementally, whispering as she did, “Happy birthday, Luke.” He gave no sign that he heard, although she was next to his ear.

“See you ‘Beth,” Luke said at last, setting her down gently on the front step of her family home. She looked up at him, wide-eyed, but he just ruffled her hair and set off in the opposite direction they had come from, turning left at the next intersection, and then he was gone.

She turned to Thalia with the question still lingering on her face, and she sighed, looking older than her 17 years. “Come on,” she said, ruffling Annabeth’s hair the same way Luke had. “Let’s go get a snack and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Thalia did not have much to tell, as Luke hadn’t told her much, what with avoiding her all day at school. He had told her, shortly, that his soulmark had come in, and that he would not be sharing what it was with  _ anyone _ . Thalia even put the emphasis on it when she related the story to Annabeth, rolling her eyes as she did. Through the facade she put up, Annabeth could tell Thalia was angry Luke hadn’t told her more.

Annabeth thought she understood, but at 12 she was still struggling with the idea of soulmates. She knew the basics of course; everyone gets a mark when they turn 18, and that mark matches the one your soulmate receives. It is a combination of the two people, an inner representation of their souls. Annabeth thought that was a little far fetched, but even she didn’t think she could argue with the science of it all. For better or worse, the universe picks a person fated for you, and everything from there is up to free will.

Her parents weren’t soulmates. They met at a rally against the concept in fact, and were part of a select group that strived to live their lives with no interference from the marks. These groups had gained significance in the 70s and 80s, and were still going strong as far as she could tell. They had made gains in rights for non-matched couples and people without marks, but opposition was strong.

Her dad was part of that opposition now, not actively, but he made a big deal in saying that his wife, her step-mom, Ellen, had reformed him. This was, of course, after Annabeth’s mom had already left him, not for her soulmate, but just another guy. She thought that was the worst part of it. She couldn’t tell if her dad felt the same, but he had met Ellen only a year later, and they were married in months.  _ The pull of your soulmate _ , Frederick had mused out loud as he tucked her in at night.  _ Nothing compares. You’ll understand when you’re older. _

How she detested that phrase. She was older now and she still didn’t understand. Not a single part of it.

She didn’t tell Thalia any of this, though she was sure the girl knew. Thalia had her own complicated relationship with her parents and they with their soulmarks. Just another example to add to the list of Why Soulmates Suck, a running gag the two of them had come up with and shared with Luke. He frequently contributed his own.

Annabeth had watched Luke struggle with the excitement of getting his mark combined with the animosity he felt towards the very idea of it. She figured those thoughts were running rampant in his brain right now. No wonder he hadn’t been very talkative on the walk home. Annabeth wasn’t worried though. If there was any rhyme or reason to this whole soulmate business, Thalia’s mark would match Luke’s when she turned 18 later this year, and Annabeth could finally have a point towards Why Soulmates Might Be Okay.

That didn’t happen. Or it did, but not the way it should’ve.

Annabeth had woken up the day of Thalia’s 18th birthday to her house phone ringing throughout the house. She groaned out loud as it echoed shrilly, and opened her eyes just enough to see the pre-dawn light where the shade didn’t cover her window fully. With luck, she had two more hours before she had to wake up for school, if only the phone would stop  _ ringing _ .

It did, then, and Annabeth rolled back over in the blissful silence to try to convince her body back to rest. It had almost worked, but…

“Annabeth,” her dad said, pushing her door open and stepping inside. She blinked fuzzily at him, uncomprehending. He had obviously been getting ready for work when the phone rang, judging by his half buttoned shirt and undone tie. The house phone hung limply in his hand.

“What?” she asked, unable to keep the snap from her voice. Sirens were going off in the back of her head even as she struggled to keep her eyes open. A sick feeling started to originate in the bottom of her stomach.

“It’s Thalia. For you,” he clarified unnecessarily.

She held out a hand in silent demand for the phone, which he stepped further into the room to give to her. He didn’t retreat after, simply staring at her as she lifted it to her ear.

“Thalia?” she asked, holding eye contact with her father. He looked prematurely sorry, like he knew what was coming and couldn’t do anything about it.

“‘Beth,” Thalia sobbed. Annabeth’s heart strings tightened and the feeling in the pit of her stomach developed into full blown dread.

“What is it, what’s happened?” she asked urgently, clinging to the receiver like it was a lifetime. Time seemed to slow for a second, as if the whole world was struggling against the news she would have to hear, protecting her as best it could. But it couldn’t stop spinning, and Annabeth heard Thalia’s words anyway.

“It’s Luke, he’s dead ‘Beth, he’s dead.”

The feeling in her stomach ratcheted up through her chest, closing in a metal vice around her heart. The world blurred. Her fingers were numb, and she couldn’t feel the tears slip down her face, but her father wiped them away anyway. He had moved to sit on the bed next to her, an imposition she would never have tolerated before this moment, but she hadn’t even noticed happened.

As Thalia sobbed into the phone, and Annabeth’s tears spilled faster and faster down her face, she let her dad pull her into a hug. The last one she would ever allow.

Later, Annabeth got the full story from Thalia. How she hadn’t slept the night before, waiting and hoping for her mark to show up, for it to match Luke’s, not that she had ever seen it. In the year since his birthday, Luke had always kept it carefully covered, a personal preference most people didn’t care for. When her mark had shown up, crossed golden arrows inside a pine wreath, Luke was the first person Thalia called. It was just past three o’clock for both of them, Luke just down the coast but not asleep.

And their marks matched. Just like they always wanted, just like Annabeth had always told them, separately, that they would. Luke had booked a plane ticket immediately, he was coming to her,  _ he was coming to her _ .

He had died before getting to the airport. Drunk driver. Later, the doctors told Thalia it was instant, painless. She had nodded, fierce through smudged makeup from crying, and told them to take her to the body. Annabeth hadn’t gone with. She didn’t want to see.

Five months later, the day after Thalia graduated, she left San Francisco for the East Coast and never looked back.

Five months earlier, Annabeth had held her much older, bigger friend in her tiny arms and swore that whoever her soulmate was, she didn’t want to meet him.

Now, almost but not quite seven years later, she still hadn’t, though it had only been a year and change since she had gotten her mark. Despite herself, she liked it, though it wouldn’t have been something she would have chosen for a tattoo.

It covered the entirety of the left side of her ribs, a seascape that glittered and changed every day. Some days the waves slapped down, hard and unyielding when she stopped to let herself feel it. Other days, it lapped gently at the shore, and the sound of waves would soothe her to sleep at night, often against her will. It was like looking into a tropical paradise. Birds swooped in and out at random, sometimes making nests in the olive trees that encroached upon the scene. Fish leaped out of the water, and animals sunned themselves on the rocks. Occasionally she wondered if this was a real place, a little slice of paradise just for her and her soulmate. She shook the thought out of her head whenever it wormed in, along with all other soft things she may be feeling towards whoever shared her mark. She had had enough of bad soulmates for a lifetime.

Piper pursed her lips, but didn’t argue with the distaste in her voice. Her roommate had gone through her fair share of soulmate drama, but still kept the faith that she would find the girl or guy that matched her mark and that they would make it work. She almost believed hard enough for the both of them. Key word,  _ almost _ .

Piper’s mark was on the inside of her bicep, almost as easy to hide as Annabeth’s. It wasn’t as big, but, like hers, it changed on the daily. Some days, it was a sky as clear as the eye could see, the single dove that occupied the space flying through it easily. Others, it stormed and stormed, lightning flashing and, according to Piper, thunder rumbling, though Annabeth couldn’t hear it. Piper couldn’t hear the waves on her side crashing either, though she had laid her head there on countless movie nights and tried.

There was relative silence for a few minutes, as Piper drizzled syrup on the stack of pancakes and Annabeth speared pieces of scrambled egg with her fork. They were almost finished with the plate when Piper next spoke.  
“Leo texted me this morning.”

“He was up?” Annabeth asked, arching an eyebrow. Leo, their third roommate, hadn’t returned last night, citing, ‘an opportunity too good to pass up.’

“Never slept,” Piper said, procuring her phone from nowhere as she apparently navigated to their text chain. She squinted at the screen and cleared her throat, obviously about to impersonate Leo terribly, when the man himself burst through the door, soaking wet.

“Guys,” he said happily, trademark smile firmly in place, even as his hair dripped onto their welcome mat. Annabeth couldn’t resist a grin, even though she had been pouting all morning. Leo just had that effect. He was relentlessly cheery, even at seven in the morning and soaked to the bone and apparently having gotten no sleep the night before. He took in the scene in front of him and his mischievous smile became a pout. “You didn’t leave any for me?”

“We didn’t think you’d be back, dolt,” Piper replied, nevertheless levering herself up, presumably to make Leo more pancakes.

“Why are you back?” Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow above her coffee cup.

“I would love to tell you, Annie, seriously, but first, I must change, and then I must eat, and then I am going to sleep until noon.” With that, he dashed away, wet socks slapping on the floor. Piper and Annabeth made faces in harmony.

It was barely a minute before Leo was back, in dry clothes but still sprinkling water from his hair with every minute movement. And he made  _ a lot  _ of them. Leo was always tapping his fingers, bouncing his leg, picking at the skin around his nails, you name it. They were all ADHD, but Leo more so than either Piper or Annabeth.

Leo pulled out the stool next to Annabeth roughly and all but collapsed into it. He had changed out of his jeans and jacket and into pajamas, a sure sign that they were going to spend as much of the day as they could on their couch watching movies. Annabeth thought, with a hint of despair, of the reading she had to boggle her way through. In addition to being ADHD, they were all dyslexic too.

“So? Spill,” Piper prompted from where she was hovering over her second set of freshly poured pancakes. Leo’s eyes lit up when he saw them.

Leo groaned, putting his head down. “I was at that dive bar, Poseidon, you know the one?” Annabeth and Piper hummed in recognition at the name, all the prompting Leo needed to keep going. “And I met the most beautiful girl, like seriously, stunning, only she hated me on sight, as hot girls usually do.” That was an exaggeration, but only just. Beautiful women tended to hate Leo only after he opened his mouth to say something to them, and then promptly put his foot in it.

Piper, knowing this as well as Annabeth does, in addition to having witnessed it multiple times in person, said, “C’mon Leo, what did you do to her?”

“Nothing,” he swears, holding his hands up in front of him. “I was just my normal, charming self, and she took that to mean I was hitting on her.”

“Were you hitting on her?” Piper asked.

“No!” Leo insists. “Even I know better than to hit on a lady while she’s at work.”

“So she was the bartender?” Annabeth asked.

“Yeah! And I was just trying to get a drink! And she was like, are you 21? And I was like, look at me, of course I’m 21. And she was like can I see your ID? And I gave her my fake and I made it myself so I know it's good but she obviously wasn’t convinced and she was all like ‘Leo Valdez’ and I was like ‘yours, truly’ and she was like ‘is that a line?’ and I was like ‘if you want it to be’ and it turned out, she did not want it to be,” Leo explained.

There was a beat of silence, where Piper looked up incredulously from her pancakes and Annabeth eyed Leo sideways. They made eye contact, and promptly burst out laughing. Leo huffed, but he waited for it to die out before continuing.

“Yeah, so then I was just hanging around the bar, waiting for Nyssa, whatever, and these guys come over! And the main dude, their, like, leader was just talking to the bartender and he’s like nonthreatening except for the fact that he’s also probably the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, and his buddy is blonde and toned and tall but looks like he eats plain oatmeal for breakfast and then the last dude is dressed like entirely in black and he gives off an aura of like Do Not Fuck With Me. And the main dude is like chatting with me, pretty obviously trying to gauge my interest in the girl while simultaneously warning me off of her, and the other two are just glaring, and then Nyssa showed up! And she’s like, of course, who the fuck are these guys? And she gives off her own pretty strong aura of Do Not Fuck With Me and the bartender comes back over to get her a drink and through both being strong women, I assume, she gets the chick to call off her attack dogs and stop glaring daggers at me long enough for me to get a refill.”

Piper scooped the pancakes up and set them on a new plate, probably silently despairing the extra dishes. Leo dove on them hungrily, while Annabeth waited for Leo to go on, as he surely would. Piper took the chance to nudge him in a slightly more productive direction.

“Unless this story ends with ‘and then I had sex with the bartender,’ none of this is explaining where you spent last night and why you’re home so early,” she said.

Leo made a face and swallowed. “Well, I was there drinking with Nyssa until closing time when bartender and entourage kicked us out, and Nyssa invited me back to her house to meet her siblings. Half-siblings,” he corrected, at Annabeth and Piper’s questioning looks. Nyssa was Leo’s sister on his dad’s side. She was three years older and had stepped forward to get Leo out of foster care and into her custody when he was already almost 18. The request hadn’t gone through in time, but Leo had decided on coming to New York for college because of her. The chance to have any family was too good to pass up.

“How many?”

“Six,” Leo said, through a mouthful of pancake. He swallowed before continuing, “They were really cool, accepted me like I wasn’t just Nyssa’s half-brother who she hardly knows herself. And wow, do they know how to party. I’m only back now cause this seemed to be the time when most were dropping off to sleep and I got offered a ride on someone’s way to work.”

“I’m glad you liked them,” Annabeth said quietly. He turned to grin at her, full force, expression softening somewhat as he took her in. In a second, it was back, brighter than before as he slung an arm around her neck and pulled her in for a loose hug. He kept it there as he scarfed down pancakes, and Annabeth let him.

Her family had never been big on affection, especially when it came to Annabeth. It had programmed a response in her to not want it, to shrug off a hand on her shoulder or move her knee when someone’s leg pressed up against it in class. Leo and Piper were the only people who ignored this response, stubbornly draping themselves over her at every opportunity. She had gotten used to it since the first time, when Piper grabbed her hand to drag her through a crowded party and she ripped it back like she had been burned. Piper had gotten the message, no holding hands at parties, but she still wiggled beneath Annabeth’s blankets with her and stuck her always freezing toes in the crease of her knees. Leo would never do the same, but he let her lean her forehead against his back when she was drunk and the world was spinning and he covered her hand with his when she reached up to hold his shoulder in order to not fall down. On mornings like this, when Annabeth was madder than mad at the world and aching and empty inside, he pulled her into his side and gave her a noogie, laughed and laid his head on her stomach to watch movies. 

He was always warm, like the comet streaking across his forearm kept him supplied with a steady stream of fire. Leo liked to say it made him a fiery lover. Annabeth and Piper both visibly pretended to gag at this.

To be honest, she wasn’t even entirely sure if Leo had lost his virginity. In this day and age, it wasn’t taboo anymore to have sex with people before meeting your soulmate, but somehow Annabeth still doubted he had. Even though he acted differently, Leo was a romantic at heart. Somehow his own soulmate sob story hadn’t put him off the idea.

Annabeth frowned down at her coffee. Out of the three of them, she detested the notion the most. Leo and Piper were more like the rest of the world: waiting, hoping, but not stagnant. Not simply biding their time until their other half showed up. Inwardly, she scoffed.  _ Other half _ . What a ridiculous idea. She was a whole person, thank you very much.

Piper and Leo had continued the conversation without her, somehow they had gotten on the topic of where, when, and how exactly Keanu Reeves would die.  _ If  _ he dies, Piper insisted to a progressively louder Leo, who was talking about a secret society and a murder plot that cumulated in a mysterious hero, whose name might be Leo, saving the day. Annabeth hid a smile behind her coffee cup and set it down with a  _ thunk _ drawing their attention as she blandly predicted the end of the world and the famous actor ending alongside the rest of them as the world burned. They both stared at her for a long moment, before launching into counter-arguments which got higher in both volume and pitch.

Annabeth smiled again, wider, and didn’t bother to hide it. Maybe soulmates didn’t work and the universe had burdened them all for no reason and some days Annabeth woke up wanting to scream until she ran out of air, but she had Piper and Leo and that was enough.


	2. Figuratively or Literally?

Annabeth scowled down at the page in front of her. She had budgeted forty five minutes to do this reading and at this rate it would take twice that. That would push back the calculus homework to encroach on her dinner time, and then she wouldn’t have long enough to do more than scarf down a sandwich before she went to work. But homework came first, over eating and even her job. Annabeth could skip a meal, she could get another job, but she couldn’t risk her full ride scholarship. So even as her dyslexia made letters change places and the text float off the page, she pushed herself to focus.

A book fell heavily onto a table nearby, and her head snapped up. The library wasn’t particularly crowded in this section, but she knew that made everyone more conscious of interruptions to the silence that permeated their workspace. She scanned the faces at the tables around her and zeroed in on the offender. It was a heavy set boy, as big as any of the football players on their university teams. Why any institute of learning would waste money on such a thing was beyond her. The boy was flushed pink, clearly embarrassed, so she only glared at him for a second before she looked back at her reading.

She struggled through it for another few minutes before the tension in her head threatened to blind her, and she dropped her head back, staring at the dark ceiling instead. She was in her favorite study space, where she only ever went by herself. When she was with Piper and Leo, who were notoriously incapable of being quiet, they went to Leo’s spot on the first floor, or Piper’s on the third, if they really needed to focus. This tunnel was a strictly silent zone, an unspoken rule enforced with fierce glares and pointed  _ shhhh _ ’s. The atmosphere did more than enough to communicate this as well, the oppressive darkness of the tunnel swallowed up sound like nothing else. Bright but small lights lined the floor between tables and each had a standing lamp to provide any extra light she might need. Down here, it could be ten in the morning or eight at night and she wouldn’t be able to even venture a guess. That was part of why she liked it so much.

With a sigh, she checked her phone anyway. Thirty minutes left to read as many pages. She rolled out her neck and restarted.

Like predicted, she went over her allotted time, leaving her only enough to wait impatiently at the deli on the first floor and grab her toasted cheese and tomato sandwich before blotting for the bus she had to catch. The bus driver saw her running and reopened the doors to let her on, a small mercy which she was grateful for. Not every bus driver did that.

She smiled gratefully at the small woman as she swiped her bus pass and took the first open seat she could. She spared enough of her brain to listen to stops being announced as she tore open the wrapping on her sandwich and began to eat.

Ten more minutes and she was hopping off the bus outside the hospital, her current place of employment. She didn’t love her job, nor did she really hate it. It paid the bills, which was what really mattered, not that Piper couldn’t cover her rent or utilities if need be. Annabeth was too proud for that, but she knew Leo had borrowed money from Piper’s dad for tuition that year. His mechanic job paid more than hers, but he only had a partial scholarship.

Compared to his back breaking work, her job was easy. She took photos of the babies born in the hospital for… some reason or another. She wasn’t exactly sure why. While the babies were cute enough and good company to boot, the parents were more of a struggle for Annabeth. She typically tried to avoid them as much as possible, and where that wasn’t possible, stay professional and detached. She didn’t want to know these babies' stories, if they would grow up in a loving home or a split one, if their parents were soulmates or not. The knowing always made it worse.

She snapped a picture of a baby boy and watched the screen for the result. Her gaze flickered back to where it lay while she waited. The newborn’s name tag read Charles. She smiled down at him. The photo surfaced; he was spread eagle, staring up at her like she was an alien from another planet.

She moved on. The next baby boy in the bassinet to Charles’ left is unnamed. She forcibly pushes out the thoughts that crowd her brain: had his parents just not decided, or are they never going to decide, having left him here to be put in the foster system and more than likely shuffled from home to home like Leo had? She shoved the apprehension out of her mind and took the picture. She gingerly reached down and tugged his cap further down over his ears while waiting on the picture to load. He’s asleep in it, face clear of any worries that might one day invade.

She allowed her gaze to linger on him for only a second longer, heart clenching, and then she shakes herself out of it, moves on. The next baby is a girl, Isabella, and she already has golden hair sprouting on her head. Annabeth takes the picture, takes a breath, and keeps moving.

Three hours later and she’s finally done, having handed off her camera to her replacement, Will, who works the night shift on top of his pre-med coursework. He’s the one who got Annabeth the job, knowing her from a terrible semester of biology that Annabeth would rather forget. Her decision to take a science credit as early as possible and get the gen ed out of the way was sound, but the class was hell, and Will was the only reason she got through it. It had formed a friendship for life, admittedly the type where they send each other memes on instagram and twitter and occasionally get together to drink when school isn’t actively owning their asses. She treasures it.

He sends her on her way with a teasing, “Don’t have too much fun tonight,” knowing that she was going to return to her apartment and do one of three things: piles of homework, fall straight into bed, or drink with Piper until she couldn’t send comprehensive texts. She grimaced at him in reply and stuck her tongue out when he only laughed. Will was a lot like Leo in that way, everything just rolled off his back and failed to dim his sunny smile. She knew that if he lifted his shirt, an actual sun would peek out at her from where it grew flowers from a decaying skeleton. She found the mark more morbid than most, but Will didn’t seem to mind. He certainly didn’t let it dim his bright complexion.

Her thoughts moved on from Will after she stepped outside the hospital and once again found herself surrounded by color and noise and scent, vastly different from the white halls and muted conversations of the hospital. In the darkness, she planted her feet and breathed. The pavement was wet, it had rained while she was on shift. The wind whipped her baby hairs around her head and out of her pony, she scowled to think of the halo she would have once she got indoors. Cars honked on the freeway, and life went on.

Another quick bus ride later, and she was standing on the welcome mat of their apartment, keys jangling as she set them on the small table. She kicked off her shoes before venturing further into the space. The kitchen was empty, as was the bathroom opposite it. She walked past Leo and Piper’s open doors and paused to put her backpack inside her door. Then she made her way into the final room of the cramped apartment, and found Piper on their ratty couch watching  _ Desperate Housewives _ , Leo nowhere in sight.

Roommates general positions ascertained, she wandered back to her own room, stripping out of her day clothes and pulling on grey sweatpants and a long sleeve black shirt. She crawled over her bed to reach the charger and connected her phone, which had died somewhere between leaving the library that afternoon and returning here. She then crosses the hall and flicks the light on in the bathroom she shares with Leo; both of them had agreed before they even moved in that sharing a bathroom with Piper would be nothing short of a nightmare. She took longer getting ready than Leo and Annabeth doubled and combined. Annabeth grinned thinking of the faux irritation Piper had expressed when they claimed rooms based on that. She kept grinning all the way through washing her hands, and it was firmly in place when she draped herself over the arm of the couch and into Piper’s lap.

“Why are you so happy?” she grumbled, nonetheless setting down her phone and running her fingers through Annabeth’s hair.

“Can I not be excited to see my best friend in the whole world?” Annabeth asked, eyes wide in innocence.

“No,” Piper answered shortly. “You want something.”

She widened her eyes even further. “Just your undying love and affection.”

Piper scoffed, but she could tell the other girl was pleased. Annabeth shut her eyes and let her body sink into the cushions as Piper continued stroking her hair and Bree and Gabrille yelled at each other about the latest drama happening on Wisteria Lane.

She was rudely awakened what felt like minutes later. Piper hadn’t moved, so it probably wasn’t much longer than that, maybe an hour at most. On the television, a different drama was playing out between Susan and Lynn. She wondered what woke her, but got her answer the next second, as Leo stumbled his way into the room and fell face down on the other couch, barely avoiding smacking his head on the arm. She blinked at his prone form, and looked up at Piper in question. She, too, was staring quizzically at Leo, where he was now mumbling nonsense into the throw pillows.

“Leo,” Piper finally said, carefully. It was unlike him to enter a room and not immediately announce his presence or launch into an annoying tirade about his day and the many problems he had faced.

Leo mumbled more nonsense in response.

“What was that, bud?” Piper asked, Annabeth finally crunching herself up to free Piper’s legs. She swung herself into sitting position, but neither of them made a move towards Leo.

He rolled over, finally, but seemingly didn’t account for the fact that the couch wasn’t that wide, falling flat on his back on the floor. This didn’t even seem to register to him; his eyes were blank as they gazed at the singularly unfascinating ceiling and his lips moved without producing sound. Thoroughly concerned now, Annabeth made to stand, but Leo spoke before she could.

“Soulmate,” he said, dazed. “She’s my soulmate.”

The world seemed to stop, and then restart, and then stop again. Soulmate? Leo had found his soulmate?

“That’s good, right?” Piper prompted, seeming torn between checking on Leo and checking on Annabeth. She was sure her face had gone carefully blank when Leo had spoke, but that was sometimes more of an indicator of bad feelings than a frown would be, especially in the eyes of Piper, who knew her too well.

“Good. Right,” Leo repeated.

Piper either gave up on judging who needed her more in that moment or Leo won because she crossed the room to kneel at his head and stroke his hair back, much like she had for Annabeth when she was falling asleep. Leo closed her eyes and pushed into her hand.

“So, uh,” Annabeth started, recovering from her speechlessness and trying to push forward despite her reservations, “Who is it?”  
“Calypso,” he said dreamily.

“Who?” Piper and Annabeth asked at the same time. She smiled at her best friend, but Piper’s eyes were still fixed on Leo, a concerned expression on her face.

“The bartender. From two weeks ago.”

Annabeth cast her mind back. She could vaguely remember waking up to the worst mental health day she had had in awhile, Leo returning home in the wee hours of the morning with a tale of another girl, and the three of them piling blankets on themselves spread out over the living room, simply existing in each other’s spaces as they did their own things, an action movie playing in the background that Leo had picked for his choice.

“The one who hated you on sight?” Piper asked, wrinkling her nose.

“You know what they say: there’s a thin line between love and hate,” Leo said, opening his eyes with a cheesy grin. Some of his usual spunk seemed to be returning.

“So why are you here instead of with her?” Annabeth asked, doing her best to keep the snap out of her voice. She wasn’t entirely successful, judging by the harsh look Piper sent her.

“Oh, Annabeth,” Leo half-sighed, sitting up. Piper jerked her head out of the way in order to avoid being hit and rolled her eyes at the back of his head. She used his head to lever herself up, and reclaimed her spot next to Annabeth. “She’s a lot like you.”

“Excuse me?” Annabeth asked, a laugh bubbling up in her throat even through her newfound bad mood. Picturing Leo soulmatched with anyone like her did not a perfect picture make.

“Not like that,” he said. “She’s also suspicious of the whole system, asked to take it slow. I was already on my way out when she saw the mark, and she told me to go. She’ll be there tomorrow.”

“Figuratively or literally?” Piper asked.

“Both,” he said. “Which is why I need my two wingwomen and best friends to come with me to meet her.”  
“Isn’t meeting the friends something you reserve for like the tenth date?” Piper asked. Her knowledge of dating was as full of holes as any of theirs, and soulmates were a whole other maze they didn’t have the first clue how to navigate.

“It’s not meeting the friends,” Leo protested. “It’s showing her that I have ladies in my life who I respect because I’m a good guy. And also backup, in case something goes terribly wrong and I have to fake my own death and flee the country. Do not shake your head at me, Annabeth Chase.”

Annabeth shook her head even more firmly. “A dive bar, Leo? Not exactly my scene.”

“Besides,” Piper said, “She’s your soulmate. Nothing is going to go wrong.”

Leo relaxed a little; Piper’s voice had that effect. It was hard to resist when she told you to do something or offered reassurances. It lasted only for a second.

“But guys,” Leo said plaintively. “What if it does?”

“Hard to argue with that logic,” Piper said, glancing over at Annabeth. Traitor. She would never pass up an opportunity to go out, unlike Annabeth, who had to be dragged.

She huffed, “Is not,” but ultimately resigned herself. She had one day to get over herself and learn to be nice to Leo’s soulmate.

She stayed quiet as Piper peppered questions at Leo, who answered them as best he could in his state of shock and with fairly limited knowledge of his newfound other half. Finally, it got to be too much for her and she mumbled a  _ goodnight  _ and stumbled her way into the bathroom to stare at herself in the mirror for a few long seconds. Her thoughts tumbled every which way in her brain, jockeying each other to make themselves known. She shut her eyes against the onslaught, and then aggressively shoved them down. She reached for face wash, the first part of her nightly routine, and didn’t open her eyes.

Back in her room she didn’t bother turning on the light before slumping down on top of her covers. Her phone dug into her hip, but she didn’t move just yet. Her jumbled thoughts returned, unbidden.

Leo had a soulmate. She was going to meet said soulmate tomorrow. If Leo was lucky, this Calypso would be in their lives forever from this point. She was a world-altering event. Before she crawled under the covers and let sleep take her once more, she wondered if Calypso was also categorizing Leo as a world changing event in her own bed, thinking of her newfound match as she was falling asleep.

She woke up the next morning to Piper wiggling her way beneath her bedding. She wondered why for a second, before she felt the tackiness of her cheeks and the wetness of her lashes. “Was I yelling?” she asked, mind cloudy.

“No,” Piper answered. “Just talking.”

“What was I saying?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

Piper sighed and curled her body inward around Annabeth’s. “The same thing as always. Calling out for Luke and Thalia.”

Annabeth nodded. She had been haunted by nightmares about her previous best friends since the day after Thalia left for school. In the years since, it had lessened to almost a stop, but events like yesterday, one of her new best friends finding their own soulmates, had apparently been enough to restart it. She shuddered despite herself.  _ It was a freak accident _ , she reassured herself.  _ Leo’s soulmate is fine, wherever she is. _

Speaking of the devil, Leo nudged open her door at that second. There was an expression on his face like he thought he was intruding but he was probably unable to put aside his worry or curiosity. She rolled her eyes at the hestiance she saw from him and stuck an arm out from under the covers to motion him over. As soon as he was within grabbing distance, Piper struck, pulling him down to join them with a gleeful laugh as Leo shrieked. Annabeth couldn’t help her laughter, even as traces of her dream lingered.

The three of them laid in the cocoon of Annabeth’s blankets for longer than they should’ve, even for a Saturday morning. When they emerged, they would have to clean the apartment, get groceries, run other errands and do other chores like that. For now, none of that existed. They steered clear of the topic of soulmates by silent agreement, instead talking about Piper’s professor and his affair with a graduate student, Leo’s most recent accident with fire, Annabeth’s distaste for raisins. Anything and everything, exactly as three best friends should be. Despite herself, Annabeth found herself wondering how this would change with the new addition of Leo’s soulmate, before that thought was shoved out of her mind as Piper asked for her opinion on man buns. She pulled a face and Piper crowed with laughter,  _ See Leo, she agrees with me. _

Eventually, Annabeth’s alarm that she only set for worst case scenarios went off, signalling that they would have to shift into maximum overdrive to get everything that they needed done in time. Leo was the first up, ripping the blankets back and uncaring of her squawk of protest.

“Please,” he said, standing and stretching deeply. “I know you remake your bed completely every Saturday morning anyway.”  
“It’s creepy that you know that,” she responded, clambering out after Piper, who left to hopefully start making food.

“I know everything, Chase,” he said, tapping a knuckle to her door frame on the way out. “Everything,” he called back over a shoulder. She resisted rolling her eyes at his antics, somehow sure that if she did he would yell out through the apartment that he saw it.

She left her bed unmade for the moment as she pulled on a Saturday outfit. It was meant to be comfy for studying, while presentable for errands. She had outfits for class days, work days, staying in, and any combination of the above. This one necessitated yoga pants and a sweatshirt, which was honestly her usual fashion MO. She prized being comfortable over an outfit that was cute but took effort, unlike Piper.

She did her morning routine before Leo could snag the bathroom to shower. He was lucky both of them showered at night, otherwise they would constantly be on his ass about a lack of hot water. Leo took his showers as hot as he could get it, which was pretty hot with his skills with anything that could be tinkered with. Unfortunately, his abilities didn’t extend to getting more hot water after he took it all.

Returning to her room, she did make her bed, as she did every Saturday, ignoring Leo when he breezed by with a pointed look on his way to the bathroom. She hauled her laundry up on her way out of her room and stopped between Leo’s room and the kitchen to start it, leaving her bin on top of the washer and closing the door to not block the already small hallway. Two chores done already, she entered the kitchen and maneuvered around Piper to get to the grocery list. The intention was that they would write down items as they ran out or thought of them, but right now the only thing on the list was CHEESE in pink glitter pen.

“What kind of cheese?” she asked Piper absently, opening the fridge door to peer into it. 

Piper, making what she thought was french toast, said, “Any?”

Annabeth withdrew her head from the appliance to fix her roommate with a look. “Any cheese?” she asked, dry.

“Yes. And also mangoes.”

Shaking her head slightly, Annabeth grabbed a green glitter pen from the mug they kept on the counter and wrote it on the list. She also added peaches and the ingredients they used to make salad.

She waved it in Piper’s direction. “Anything else you see while cooking, add it. And whatever else you think of. I’m going as soon as my laundry is done.”

Piper nodded to show she had heard, attention firmly on the strip of bread she was soaking. Annabeth stuck it back to the fridge, under a magnet of Moses with the burning bush, captioned  _ Fuck! My Weed _ . She paused to look at a selfie of the three of them took at the top of the Appalachian mountains last spring break. Piper’s face was partially obscured by a bird magnet that read  _ The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math _ . She moved it slightly to show all of their faces better, and turned to go back to the living room, which needed to be picked up before one of them could vacuum it. She almost ran into Leo in the hallway as he stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped less securely than she would’ve liked around his waist. She scowled when he laughed, and pushed him into his room by the face.

Hours later, grocery shopping done despite Piper and Leo’s less than helpful suggestions for what to buy over french toast, she settled down on the floor in front of the coffee table to monopolize it for the next several hours of her day. Piper had taken over the kitchen table as soon as they finished putting the groceries in their proper place, and Leo had since been banished to work in his room in order to not distract the girls with his nervous energy, which was worse today than it usually was. She didn’t have to search hard for an answer why, the fact that they were meeting his soulmate for the first time today, and him for the third was never far from her mind, even as she stumbled through readings and got hand cramps doing pages of math.

By five o’clock, Leo was apparently done being productive for the day, meaning Annabeth and Piper were too. Whether he tried to or not, Leo just had a way of distracting his usually already distracted ADHD roommates. Even something as simple as making a sandwich became a whole show when Leo was involved.

He did it purposely today, waiting for the opportune moment to strike and taking down Piper first. He could usually get Annabeth off track, but it took work, so having Piper there with him was essentially halving that. The two of them combined were a menace to society at large. It was how they first became friends.

Annabeth hadn’t been there for the initial meeting, but as Piper explained it, it had involved a frat party, a Christmas theme, an entire bottle of eggnog, and a fist fight. Then they had gone on break, Annabeth had flown home for a miserable month which she vowed not to repeat, and when she came back, Leo was a fixture in her life.

She hadn’t known what to make of him then, had regarded him with thinly veiled skepticism and was annoyed by his antics more than amused. Nothing short of outright hostility could dim his personality though, and she slowly got used to it. By St. Patrick’s Day she was finally willing to call them friends, and by the day after he was her best friend, tied with Piper as he became part of their trio. It had taken another themed frat party, way too much tequila, body shots, and a wrestling match to get them there, but it was one of Annabeth’s favorite memories.

They harnessed that same energy that had gotten them in so much trouble back in their freshman year and devoted it now solely to getting Annabeth to throw her hands up and admit defeat. It took less than two minutes in total, both of them exploding into cheers when she surrendered and started shoving papers back into folders and books into her bag. She stood up from where she had been sitting for the past five hours and heard every bone in her back pop. Piper pulled a face and Leo grinned impishly, popping his own neck in response. Piper hit him with the back of her hand, and she let them argue as she returned her backpack to her room. They were still at it when she came back, so she flopped across the couch and waited for it to die down.

Finally, Piper silenced Leo with another smack to the chest, at which he groaned dramatically and slunk to the floor. Piper gloated. Annabeth eyed them both.

“What time are we going to meet your new girlfriend?” Piper asked teasingly.

“Please don’t call her that when you meet her,” he said pleadingly as he sat up. There was even more nervous energy to him now than usual. Her heart softened a little at it; as much as she hated the idea of soulmates, she could still sympathize with how anxious he must be right now. As much as Leo dodged expressing any sort of feelings, Annabeth and Piper were the most important people in the world to him, and now they were meeting the person who was supposed to become the most important person to him.

That thought cracked the smile she was wearing a tiny bit, enough to make Piper notice. The other girl always noticed her moods. “What’s up, buttercup?” she asked, cavalier, though Annabeth knew she wanted the real answer.

“Just nervous,” Annabeth said, as near to the truth as she wanted to get, “about meeting Leo’s soulmate.”

“You’re telling me,” Leo muttered, confirming Annabeth’s musings on his mental state.

“If she’s your soulmate, I bet she’s awesome,” Piper said with confidence. It was almost enough to get Annabeth to believe it.

Piper bullied her into starting to get ready barely an hour later, after a mishap with some grilled cheese sticks that almost set their oven on fire. Thankfully, Annabeth intervened before that point, and the cheese sticks survived to be consumed as their dinner. Then Piper was shoving her into her bathroom to start her makeup, answering with a fierce scowl to Annabeth’s question of why she had to wear makeup to meet Leo’s girlfriend -- Leo calling from the kitchen  _ please don’t call her that _ \-- anyway, “Because there might be attractive boys there, Annabeth!” Any further protests Annabeth had were shut down in a similar fashion. Finally, she gave up arguing, realizing firstly that she wasn’t going to win, and secondly that if she delayed Piper in starting to get ready much longer, it would be her head on a stake.

She didn’t bother with much even though she knew Piper might kill her for it. That’s what she got for not doing Annabeth’s makeup herself, the way she knew she had to if she wanted it to be up to her standards. Unfortunately, Piper knew her too well, and she didn’t leave Annabeth to her own devices when it came to picking an outfit. Even though a chill was appearing in the air and worsening day by day, Piper had put out a plain t-shirt and a jean skirt that she only owned because Piper made her buy it. At least she kept it simple. Piper liked to go all out for themed parties and as her accomplice, Annabeth was usually forced to do the same.

Leo kept darting in and out first while she does her makeup and once regrettably while she’s changing. Thankfully she was clad in underwear and the shirt already, so he doesn’t see more than he has just by virtue of being her roommate. He ignored her yelp and spreads his arms for her opinion on his latest outfit. She sighed.

“Like I’ve said to the last eight, it’s fine,” she said.

Leo groaned in frustration. “Can you even tell me what’s different about this one compared to the last?”

She scrutinized him. “The shirt?” she finally asked, weakly.

“Dios mio,” he muttered under his breath, before taking off down the hall to get Piper’s infinitely more helpful opinion. Within minutes, Piper has an outfit laid out on her bed and a murderous look in her eye as she stomps back to her bathroom to finish prepping. She emerges fifteen minutes later, the look not faded at all as she mars her makeup with a scowl directed at Leo, who had started banging on the door five minutes ago.

“Finally finished, Beauty Queen?” he asked, apparently uncaring of his life. The look in Piper’s eyes takes on a particular gleam that Annabeth usually associates with fleeing the scene after they cause an incident, like any time they go to a party without a designated mom friend, and sometimes even with one.

She managed to get them out of the apartment and pointed in the right direction without any bloodshed,  _ though the night is just beginning _ , she thinks. They get into Poseidon no problem; Leo is good at what he does. Once they’re in, Annabeth can see why Leo likes it, and not just for the pretty bartender whose eyes flew straight to them. The interior is entirely wood, like they were inside a large boat, and the weight bearing poles hung with banners added to the image. Cracked blue vinyl booths lined the wall under pictures of sea life. Even the air carried the faint smell of the ocean.

Done with her sweep of the building, Annabeth returned her full attention to Calypso, and started forward toward her when Leo did. The ten or so feet gave her time to catalogue everything about her. Caramel colored hair braided back from a timeless face, though Annabeth saw something familiar in her dark eyes. A wariness she recognized in herself. It didn’t make her automatically like the girl, but she felt marginally better about the whole situation because of it.

They trailed Leo all the way to the bar, where he stopped to take Calypso in, looking somewhat stunned. She didn’t seem able to tear her eyes away either, the guardedness slipping away to reveal a softness she had never seen anyone look at Leo with. That look was replaced the second Leo opened his mouth to start talking with a far more longsuffering one, even though this was only her third time interacting with him. She sniped back at the first thing he said, and the two were off, arguing among themselves as Piper and Annabeth watched like it was a particularly interesting tennis match.

Eventually, they ran out of speed and material and seemed to realize that Piper and Annabeth had taken seats next to them at the bar. Piper was grinning maniacally and Annabeth was smiling in spite of herself. Calypso colored slightly but seemed to push down her embarrassment and asked them what they wanted to drink with a slight smile. That smile only grew as she prepared their drinks, a fruity martini for Piper and a gin and tonic for Annabeth with Leo getting both. Calypso gave him a befuddled smile at that and Piper had explained, laughing, that Leo hated all alcohol and was in constant pursuit of a signature drink. It ignited the age old debate of if it was better to try a wide range of alcohols in hopes of finding one bearable or settling on one early and drinking it until you liked it. Extra fuel was added to the fire by way of a new opinion on the subject; Calypso declaring,  _ in her professional opinion as a bartender _ , that it was better to just pick something and drink it instead of waffling about. Annabeth had yelled in triumph, which probably earned her a look from other bar patrons, but she was beyond caring. Annabeth was so stressed all the time over things in her life that the opinions of people she didn’t know couldn’t phase her. The alcohol probably helped with that mindset.

They moved on from the topic as they all finished their first drink, Annabeth ordering another gin and tonic, Piper ordering a different fruity cocktail, and Leo starting on the second one Calypso had made for him. It was very meet the parents of them, but they quizzed her on the basics: if she attended college (she did), where she attended college (Columbia, like them), what year she was (junior) to which Piper had crowed, “Older lady!” and given Leo a fistbump. After that, Annabeth had dragged her away to one of the booths, leaving Leo to feel out the contours of his relationship with her without them.

There was a burst of noise from the door, and Calypso left Leo to serve them. Annabeth took that opportunity to return to the bar to get her and Piper refills, but also to have a second to gauge how Leo was doing without an observer.

She sat down in the chair to his right, raising an eyebrow when he jumped. “Okay, there?” she asked.

He nodded, firmly, and opened his mouth. He shut it again, opened it, and shut it, like he was having trouble finding words. She hardly ever saw him speechless.

“This isn’t real, right?” he finally asked. He looked happy and sick all at the same time. “Like, there’s no way my soulmate is a hot bartender who happens to be infuriating, and smarter than me, and in every way the girl of my dreams. That doesn’t just happen, and it definitely does not happen to me.”

She rolled her eyes and slung an arm around his shoulders in a comforting squeeze. “Leo, we both know I don’t want to say anything nice about you.”

“Ouch,” he muttered, but she forged on.

“You deserve this,” she said firmly. “You deserve to have it work out.”

He leaned his head against hers. “Thank you. It means a lot, from you.”

Moment over, she shoves his head away with one hand. “That being said, I’m glad your soulmate can kick your ass in every way possible. Really helps me out,” she said as Calypso returned to their section of the bar. She got her third drink and yet another type of tropical cocktail for Piper and left the two of them again.

It was almost closing when they stumbled out, Leo and Calypso parting without so much as a kiss. Piper is giggly from the drinks, and Annabeth must’ve had more than she thought because she found herself laughing along. Leo, having stopped after the first two drinks, just muttered, “Jesus Christ,” and looped their arms with his to walk back to the apartment. They faux swooned over his biceps and laughed harder when he flexed them. They’re still a giddy mess when they stumble back into their house a short walk later.

Leo sat both of them at the table and filled up glasses of water for them to finish before they went to change or take off their makeup or go to bed. Both of them murmur, “Yes, mom,” as they do so and Leo sputters out an indignant, “Hey!”

Annabeth is grateful for it when she finally gets her contacts out and goes to fall into bed. Her head spun from the alcohol but she ignored it. If she fell asleep quick enough, it wouldn’t matter. She did exactly that, head full of images from the night she wasn’t sure if she would remember: Piper insisting she could hit the bullseye of the dartboard, Leo spitting the fourth cocktail Piper tried all over the bar, and Calypso laughing at the inane story Leo was regaling her with. There was a smile on her face as her thoughts faded to nothing. 


End file.
